I am a Tombstone Tourist: someone who loves to wander cemeteries. I find it akin to visiting a museum: an opportunity to enjoy rarely seen sculpture, intricate carvings, and amazing architecture, all in a tranquil outdoor setting. This blog is about cemetery culture, art, history, issues of death, and genealogy - subjects of current relevance. I usually find something that intrigues me and makes me want to dig deeper. Care to join me? Read on...

Friday, February 22, 2013

Grave Robbery of the Famous

Grave Robbers

Ransom Note

Grave
robbing, also known as tomb raiding, is when a grave or tomb is opened for the
purpose of stealing artifacts or personal objects buried with the
deceased.And,
there are times, when the grave is robbed for the actual remains,
usually to demand and collect a ransom with.

Alexander T Stewart

St. Mark's

In
April 1876, the body of one of the richest men in New York was stolen.Multi-millionaire Alexander Turney
Stewart’s body was stolen from his
crypt, just three weeks after his interment at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery
in New York City.

Personal Ads

For
two years, the grave robber, who went by the name Romaine, communicated with
the Stewart family’s liaison though obscure personal ads placed in the New York
Herald.

Ransom

Terms
were finally agreed upon and the ransom amount was set at $20,000.At an undisclosed location, the body
was exchanged for the specified ransom amount.No one was ever apprehended for the grave robbery.

Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation

A positive identification of the body
was never made, but the
returned remains were entombed in a new vault in the Episcopal Cathedral of the
Incarnation in Garden City, Long Island.

President Lincoln in his Coffin

There
was an attempt to steal President Abraham Lincoln’s body in 1876 and hold it for ransom.Members of a counterfeiter's gang
attempted to steal Lincoln’s body from his tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery on
November 7, 1876.The plan was to
take Lincoln’s remains and hide them in the sand dunes of northern Indiana until a
ransom of $200,000 was paid.The
gang was also going to demand the release of one of their members from prison.

State Prison at Joliet, Illinois

Lincoln's Tomb

However,
a police informant who had infiltrated the gang let the secret service know of
the plan. Eight detectives rushed the tomb that night, but the grave robbers got
away.All were arrested within a
few days and convicted of attempted grave robbing.All were given a sentence of one year in the Illinois State
Prison at Joliet.

Inside Lincoln's Tomb

Lincoln
was reburied in his mausoleum, but reportedly not in the casket. In 1901, Robert Todd Lincoln had his
father’s remains disinterred and placed inside a steel cage that was buried 10
feet beneath the floor of his tomb.The cage was then encased in 4,000 pounds of concrete so that it could
not be opened again.

Charlie Chaplin

Chaplin's Grave

Two
grave robbers took the coffin of silent film star, Charlie Chaplin, just months after his death.Chaplin had died on Christmas day,
1977, and was buried in the Vevey Cemetery in the village of Corsier,
Switzerland.

Robbing a Grave

The
grave robbers dug up his casket in March 1978, and sent a photo of the coffin
to Chaplin’s widow along with a demand for £400,000 ($650,000 US.)Oona Chaplin refused to pay.The robbers then threatened Chaplin’s
youngest children.

Officials
caught the two men after an intense surveillance operation in May. Roman Wardas
was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison. Accomplice Gantcho Ganev
received a suspended sentence.

Chaplin's Coffin

Police
located Chaplin’s coffin buried in a nearby cornfield.Chaplin was reburied in his grave–
under several feet of reinforced concrete.

Presley's Funeral

Elvis Presley

Just
days after the death of Elvis Presley, there were rumors that a group of men planned to steal his body, and
hold it for a ransom of $10-million.Presley had been buried next to his mother in a mausoleum at Forest Hill
Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Graceland

Presley's Grave

Police confronted three men they found hanging around the Presley Mausoleum
after dark. Since they had no tools with them, officials let them go. Elvis’s grave, along with his mothers, was moved to the Meditation
Garden at Graceland, Presley’s home.The graves are now monitored by security 24-hours a day.

Whitney Houston

Houston's Casket

After
the death of Whitney Houston in
February 2012, round-the-clock armed security guards were placed at her
grave.Houston was reportedly
buried wearing over half-a-million dollars worth of jewelry and clothing.Her casket was said to be gold-lined
and worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Fairview Cemetery

The
Fairview Cemetery, in Westfield, New Jersey was closed to all but lot owners
after Houston’s burial. Officials attempted to limit the crowds and keep security in
place.One year later, Houston's grave is guarded 24
hours a day by foot patrol, and there is talk of encasing her casket in concrete.

Johann Strauss

Johannes Brahms

And
the latest case of grave robbing involves a Slovak man, who claimed last summer that he had robbed the graves of classical
composers Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms – of their teeth. Ondrej Jajcaj
supposedly dug up both graves in the Viennese Central Cemetery to get teeth
from each of the composers in order to start a museum. He claims to have robbed
other hundreds of other graves of skulls and personal effects to also put in
his museum.

Strauss' Grave

Brahms' Grave

Austrian
police began investigating the claims last May and discovered that indeed, the
teeth had been removed from the musicians. If convicted, Jajcaj could face 6
months to ten years in prison.

Although
you might assume that grave robbing doesn't happen much anymore, it appears that it is still something
to be concerned about - even in the highly electronic world of the 21st Century.

About Me

I
love wine and will take any chance to sip, savor and share it! Hence, Joy’s JOY
of Wine http://joysjoyofwine.blogspot.com,
a weekly blog about all things wine. I've been in the industry for 15
years as a winery owner, marketing director, speaker, writer, wine judge, and
100% vino girl!

I'm
also a professional freelance magazine and book writer uncorking articles about
wine, food, history, travel, cemetery history and culture. My interest in
cemetery culture led to another great, or maybe I should say
"grave" gig, my weekly blog: A Grave Interest http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com where I get to travel around the country and speak about cemetery topics for genealogy, history and
education conferences.

I suppose you could say that wine is my
passion, and cemeteries are my diversion ... into another world.

Subscribe To A Grave Interest

The contents of this site may NOT be used for commercial purposes without explicit written permission from the author and blog owner, Joy Neighbors. All photos are the property of Joy Neighbors and may not be used for financial gain of ANY kind.